Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-04-29


III Ilucl, surprised ~ loefo Hefe,i
mold tho lantern, willis iced Them, 30
said Co him He too Is the fork, pitch
I'D the hay over the GRIT, and distribu-
ted liz to the waiting cattle. We went
out, closed the door ID silence, and
moved away. There! there! Don t
YOU here inll excl aimed John.
laughed in 8 make a. ii I way, the
best 4 could do. ] tho't i did hear
him, and continued to till some rods
away. ss 8 Il
Il told @Whitlan TO hold his tongue
Tor his own sake - well as for the sake
of our neigh ors. Nobody would be
ieve he had seen or heard nything,
and it would only annoy the family.
q don't think he did for some time att
or. IS 3. NJ 3$s&$
t'NNell, the boys themselves, with
some of their cousins who came to
stay with them-did the chores there
gor undertook to. the. next night.
They heard the voice, saw the impishs
figure, ran back to the house, sent
over to me, and with my lantern /
went over. It was worse time than
on the first night-the night of the
tradegy. OF course, when went, it
was still and nothing could be seen.
/ tried to explain itsaway,t as a mere
widespread illusion, amounting to q
delusion. and such I have always re-
garded it, and pacified them for the
time. Well, twas the same the next
night, and the next. ] told them they
had for the time better remove tho
cattle and; not use the barn, for the
ghost had now taken such hold of
them that there would be no other
way, ! feared. e.
I '"That was the beginning of it.
Every thing was right in the morning,
during the day. all day, till the ap-
proach Of night, then the calls began,
and when the inside was dusky with
oncoming night, men fancied they saw
the shapless form. Light up and it
vanished with the shadows, nor was
the voice heard when any one was in
the barn. Go out, close the door, and
it began again. Sometimes, when one
left, the first thing was a low, smoker
ing laugh. Well it was all over from
that night 1t got out-+he neighbours
came, till far and near there was ex-
;citement-it got into the papers.
Once in while one came who could
neither see nor hear anything. Final
ly the season grew warm the cattle
were changed to sheds elsewhere, but it
made no difference with the thing,
whatever it was, something or moth
ing. that remained. Those who want
ed it could always find it, at twilight,
could hear it, seem to see it id the
dusk. Strike a light and it was not
there.
'"rhey used the barn that summer,
but never after much. A new house
was built further away. The frost
finally upset the underpining at one
corner, which fell down a little.
Weeds grew rank about it; finally
trees came up around it. Folks had
fancy for pines and funeral ever
green's at an early day, and there was
a clump of these that quite cut the
old barn off from the Old house. A
thicket of wild plums from one orig
inally planted grew up. tall and thick,
between it and the road. Naples,
beeches, sprang up. The. swallows
ceased to build in it, the rats deserted
it, men ceased to speak OF it. no one
went near it, and so it in g. way died
off. It is there STILL"
Then there was q talk about what
it was, it anything, among the old
boys, of whom the two from Michigan
had never visited the place.
1.-THE fact is" said r., 50 few thou
sand or hundred thousand years ago,
we were cave and river drift men, Dig
ger Indians, in fact, from which the
white man never wholly escaped.
We've progressed only in streaks. Our
cave side, Digger part, at times pre-
dominates. Every one has a large
share of primitive night. This thing
got itself started as a fungus of this
ground. Toadstools always come up
in the night. The first we know of
them We find them fully grown in the
morning. This thing. once started,
lived on this shady, damp, and for all
foolishness, rich human soil.''''
+ Dan agreed with him in the main,
though both admitted that they had
heard the voice. Capt. John differed
with them. Monroe was @unde cided;
said he had some of the soil in which
toadstools might grow. Theo said
that the weight of evidence was in ia
vor of some unusual visitation, and
wished he had been there in the day Of
it. IT,, -, - -
"Oh, tits as much there now as it
ever was,"' said r. 'I'll bet q hay.
stock against new version of the Old
Testament that If we 90 there now
youth hear the cattle calls, or think
you do. This is the very witching
hour and the very season for it,
"Done," cried Theo. ''Let US 20,
boys" s.>~.
1t was agreed to at once. The ket-
ties were filled with cold sap, the 6re
pulled away SO that no harm might
occur to the partly reduced syrup, and
the party moved toward the open
ground. - /.
7t'Your wager" said Dan to r., sis
hardly fair. Il Theodore denies hear
ing or seeing, you lose.", -. s.s5l.5s
I. "Oh, you can trust q Seven Day
Baptist, s called out William, which
provoked a small laugh. st ), 4
sits Just the night for ghosts, = said
Capt. John, looking about. ' Esf.
He Was right. The moon in It's. sec.
ond quarter furnished all the light:
The, sky was hecked with small, high
|:up, slow moving clonds, and to afancy
quickeaed by the eerie tale just told,
the cir seemed filled with fitting shad-
owsl and phantoms. The chances
are all against me-" said Theo, who
had Joined in the small laugh, recur-
ring to Dams remark '.This whole
old region Is filled with ghosts.
! can't take q step without soaring
up broods and flocks Of the old time
memories, spirits Of the departed.
This morning ] went out into the
south woods, where Decide and used
to hunt, go for chestnuts, LOAF and